National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Sixth Edition – Initial Review

Several times in her podcasts I’ve heard Birdchick advise her listeners not to upgrade their field guide (provided their current one is no more than a decade old, or so). As the multitude of Extra Special [fill in the blank with some annoying, vaguely title-specific phrase] Edition DVD’s on my shelves would tell you, I would never go so far as to say that. But I would agree with her about this: if all the new guide does is update the taxonomy to conform with the latest updates from the AOU and ABA, then what’s the point? For it to be worth buying, any new or updated North American field guide needs to do more than be current with all the splits, lumps, and new species for the ABA area.

So what about the new, “fully revised and updated” sixth edition of the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America? The quick answer is that it is more than the fifth edition with updated taxonomy. Still, is it worth upgrading? I’m not prepared to give a pronouncement on that yet, but I must say that it includes some unique and useful additions. Once I’ve had time to really get into it I’ll post a full review with my opinions. But in the meantime, to help you make an informed decision, here is a breakdown of the new features and changes.

Species

At 990 species, this new one includes 23 more than the prior. Actually, there are 26 new birds as three have been removed: Dusky-headed Parakeet and Crested Myna from the main body; and Caribbean Elaenia from the Accidentals list. Five of the 26 new ones have been added to the main section: White-chinned Petrel, Rosy-faced Lovebird, White-eyed Parakeet, Red-lored Parrot, and Loggerhead Kingbird. The rest have been added to the Accidentals:

Townsend’s Shearwater

Swinhoe’s Storm-Petrel

Tristram’s Storm-Petrel

Bare-throated Tiger-Heron

Intermediate Egret

Sungrebe

Solitary Snipe

Swallow-tailed Gull

European Turtle-Dove

Brown Hawk-Owl

Amazon Kingfisher

White-crested Elaenia

Crowned Slaty Flycatcher

Gray-collared Becard

Sinaloa Wren

Sedge Warbler

Rufous-tailed Robin

Brown-backed Solitaire

Song Thrush

Red-legged Thrush

Yellow-browed Bunting

Size

Thanks to these new additions, along with other changes, this sixth edition is a little larger than its predecessor. At 575 pages, it is 72 pages, or 14%, thicker. But this is negligible, I don’t think anyone carrying this guide will notice it.

Taxonomy

All the latest AOU changes have been incorporated here, including renaming Common Moorhen to Common Gallinule, the massive overhaul of warblers, and moving the longspurs and snow buntings from after the sparrows to just before the warblers.

Maps

The range maps have been revised based on the latest understanding of distribution. For instance, if you look closely at these sample maps you’ll see the isolated breeding population of Warbling Vireos in South Carolina is now indicated. Some maps, where appropriate, now show more area to the north, around Greenland, and to the south into Mexico. And there are some more noticeable changes as well. First, I’m sure you noted that the Warbling Vireo map has subspecies information on it. More about this shortly. Additionally, there are some new, shiny colors. Nowadays, it is worth noting when a field guide does not show the migration range. So it is not surprising that this has been added. But National Geographic took it a step further and included separate colors for spring, autumn, and both-way migration. This is the first guide I’m aware of to do that, and it is very helpful. [Update: Thanks to Georgann for reminding me that the old Golden Guide by Zim and Robbins also did this. That guide really was ahead of its time.] The Philadelphia Vireo map, for example, suggests that my best chance for seeing one where I live in Georgia is in the fall (yellow=fall migration and orange=both). And that is, indeed, the case.

The maps of 59 birds with multiple subspecies are marked to show the ranges of the constituent subspecies. For others, the maps are not large enough to include the necessary information, so there are new, larger subspecies maps for 37 species in the back. These appear very well done, and I’m looking forward to studying them further. But note, not all birds have their subspecies mapped.

Visual Index

The inside of the front and back covers now has a visual index to bird families.

Illustrations

The pointers and plate annotations introduced in the 2008 NatGeo Eastern and Western regional guides have been carried over here. I find these very useful and am glad they are here. They do not come without a cost, however. Most illustrations are reproduced slightly smaller than in the 5th edition in order to accommodate them.

The in-flight plates for ducks, raptors, shorebirds, and immature gulls are retained, but the in-flight illustrations have also been added to most of the regular accounts as well.

I’ve gone through this guide and compared it, plate-by-plate, to the previous edition. The front cover claims there are “300 new art pieces”. That wouldn’t surprise me. Here are all of the changes that I’ve found. Two caveats: I make no claims as to the comprehensiveness of this list, and some of these changes may have been made in the regional guides, but I don’t have those so I can’t be sure.

These species have been completely redone with new artwork, and in many cases additional images have been added. (Some of these changes were desperately needed.):

This completely redone plate is a huge improvement over the previous one (if you pardon the bad scan)

Greater White-fronted Goose

Bean Goose – split to Tundra and Taiga Bean-Goose, with new art

Brant – more variation shown, all artwork replaced

Baikal Teal

Garganey

Northern Fulmar – redone, with additional illustrations

Great Shearwater

Storm-petrels – all completely redone

Northern Gannet

Great Cormorant

Neotropic Cormorant

Reddish Egret

Red-tailed Hawk

King Rail

Clapper Rail

Virginia Rail

Corn Crake

Thick-billed Murre

Rhinoceros Auklet

Horned Puffin

Tufted Puffin

Common Cuckoo

Oriental Cuckoo

Goatsuckers – all have been completely redone, except Common Pauraque

Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher

Hutton’s Vireo

Western Scrub-Jay

Crows and Ravens – all redone (except Eurasian Jackdaw); in-flight and other illustrations added for most

Hmm, my copy of Alderfer 2006 (NG Complete Birds of N America) and the subsequent 2008 “Eastern Geo” both list alterus. From what I can tell, alterus is still the de facto spelling in North America. Since the AOU never updates subspecies names, I suspect we’re stuck with the 1957 names on this continent.

In theory, I’m supportive of well-reasoned changes like this, but I do wonder, on a technical level, if we aren’t stuck with the 1957 names in North America. Since NACC is “the last word”, and the last word on subspecies was in 1957, how is anarchy averted if some sources start changing subspecies names? Surely, others won’t.

I’m not sure who you mean when you refer to being stuck with the 1957 names (although there will always be cases of independent authors not checking current sources and unknowingly using older taxonomy). The fact is that AOU no longer maintains a subspecific classification and cannot still be considered the last word on subspecies names – subspecific taxonomy can’t just be frozen at 1957.

All current major North American-based works concerned with subspecific taxonomy (Clements Checklist, IOC World Bird List, Zoonomen, BNA Online, and apparently NatGeo) have been consistent in applying grammatical corrections required by ICZN. [BNA Online is a joint CLO/AOU project.]

AOU is equally committed to following ICZN rules (The Code). The David & Gosselin 2002 corrections were therefore adopted for the AOU Check-list in the 44th Supplement, changing the endings of nine species names. Any subspecies names affected (including alterus) would surely also have been corrected if AOU was still maintaining a subspecific classification.

Hi, Richard. The “we” I was referring to are birders who depend on the AOU for taxonomy.

You said, “Any subspecies names affected (including alterus) would surely also have been corrected if AOU was still maintaining a subspecific classification.”

I don’t doubt this. What I doubt, though, is that the *de jure* subspecies names have changed. I can accept that the names have been updated de facto, but I doubt that they have been changed de jure. I’m certainly not making a practical argument, but rather, a “constitutional” one. If AOU has not changed something in writing since 1957, then it seems to be that what was printed in 1957 is still de jure in effect.